Healthcare Once Again Tops List of Americans' Worries

Story Highlights

Majorities have shown high levels of concern about healthcare since 2001

49% worry a great deal about hunger and homelessness -- a new high

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Fifty-five percent of Americans worry "a great deal" about the availability and affordability of healthcare, topping Gallup's list of potentially worrisome issues for the fifth straight year. A majority of Americans have said they worry a great deal about healthcare in each of the 18 years the question has been asked since 2001, more than twice as often as any of the other 12 issues most often measured.

Healthcare, Budget Deficit Top List of Americans' Worries

Now I'm going to read a list of problems facing the country. For each one, please tell me if you personally worry about this problem a great deal, a fair amount, only a little or not at all.

The percentage of Americans who worried a great deal about the economy reached its highest point, 71%, in 2011 and 2012, but this has plummeted to 33% in 2019. The percentages worrying a great deal about the Social Security system or federal spending and the budget deficit have declined more gradually since their 2010-2011 peaks, but both have fallen more than 10 percentage points -- though worries about spending and the deficit are still high.

The persistence of Americans' concern about healthcare has not escaped the attention of politicians. The issue has been at the forefront of national politics over the past two decades -- even after Democrats, led by President Barack Obama, passed the landmark Affordable Care Act in 2010. Republican lawmakers have made numerous unsuccessful attempts to repeal it -- and at least one successful attempt to modify it -- in the years since it took effect.

The political fight has intensified in recent weeks, with new initiatives from both parties:

More than 100 Democrats backed a new "Medicare for All" bill introduced in the House of Representatives Feb. 27. The bill, pushed by the progressive wing of the party, would create a single-payer, government-funded healthcare program within two years.

President Donald Trump last week renewed his attempt to overthrow the ACA through the administration's Justice Department. A letter from the department filed last Monday says it backs a federal judge's ruling in December that the Affordable Care Act violated the U.S. Constitution because it required people to buy health insurance.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled the Democrats' new healthcare plan last Tuesday. Its major goals include lowering health insurance premiums, strengthening protections for Americans with pre-existing medical conditions and instituting a ban on what Democrats term "junk insurance" -- insurance policies that would not be required to cover maternity care, prescription drugs or those with pre-existing conditions.

Worries Increase About Homelessness, Decrease About Terrorism, Guns

Several issues measured in the March 1-10 poll set new landmarks in the 19-year history of the question for highs or lows in the level of worry, though most were not significant changes from the previous records:

Forty-nine percent now worry a great deal about hunger and homelessness, two points above the previous high measured in 2016 and 2017, and five points higher than last year's 44%. The level of worry has been on a gradual upward climb since 2008, when 38% said they worried about it a great deal.

Thirty-three percent worry a great deal about the possibility of future terrorist attacks in the U.S. -- seven points lower than last year and a single point below the previous low from 2013.

The percentage worrying a great deal about the availability of guns (41%) dropped 10 points from last year, the only other time it has been included in the list. Last year's poll was conducted only a few weeks after the mass shooting tragedy at a high school in Parkland, Florida.

The percentage of Americans saying they worry about the economy (33%) dropped one point below last year's reading, the previous low.

The 41% worrying a great deal about the Social Security system is three points below last year's low.

On three other issues, the percentage of Americans who worry a great deal has grown significantly in the past five years.

Thirty-one percent worried a great deal about the quality of the environment in 2014, the low reading in the trend. That number has grown to 47%.

Thirty-four percent worried a great deal about drug use in 2014, also the trend low, but 47% do now.

Seventeen percent worried a great deal in 2014 about race relations; now 40% do.

Bottom Line

Over the past 19 years, majorities have on multiple occasions expressed a great deal of worry about such key economic issues as the overall economy, unemployment, the Social Security system, federal spending or the budget deficit. A few other issues -- drug use, terrorism, guns -- have seen a majority express a great deal of concern a single time. But none of these issues have come close to producing the consistently high levels of worry Americans have shown about their healthcare.

Attempts by both Democrats and Republicans to create a trustworthy healthcare system have so far failed to quell Americans' concerns -- even when the political efforts produced groundbreaking legislation. Those concerns are unlikely to abate until changes are made that produce results that most Americans clearly and concretely feel in their daily dealings with the issue.

Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted March 1-10, 2019, with a random sample of 1,039 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting.

Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 70% cellphone respondents and 30% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods.